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Mercy L. Brown

(b. 1877, d. 1896)

Claim to fame: Rumored to have been a vampire.

Buried: Chestnut Hill Cemetery, Exeter, R.I.

Months after her death from tuberculosis, Brown's body was exhumed by residents of Exeter, who believed that the deceased Mercy was, in fact, a vampire, who was inflicting her brother with the same disease that killed her, her mother, and sister. Because she died in the midst of a New England winter, she was kept in a crypt at the cemetery, which helped preserve her body. It was dug up the following March and examiners discovered little decomposition and blood still in the heart. Her heart was removed and burned, to stop the vampire from doing further harm to her brother, who drank the remains of the heart mixed with water to try to cure the disease. Nonetheless, he died. Mercy Brown is known to this day as "Rhode Island's last vampire."